Expression device for automatic musical instruments



H. I. LA JOIE. EXPRESSION DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

. APPLICATION FILED IUNE IT. I9IB- 1,354,045. PatentedSept. 28, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1- (fa J1 762%88 z Him 65x6 ezfda H. J. LA JOIE.EXPRESSION DEVICE FOR. AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 17, ms. 1 54,045. Patented Sept. 28, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

2 J6 Pea-all Zuer UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT J. LA J OIE, OF ORANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T0 AUTOPIA'NOCOMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW' YQRK.

EXPRESSION DEVICE FOR AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT J. LA Join, a citizen of the United States,residing at Orange, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, haveinvented a new and useful Expression Device for Automatic MusicalInstruments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an expression device for an automatic musicalinstrument, and more particularly for a player piano or organ. In suchdevices it is desirable that provision be made for increasing the airtension on certain notes to accent the melody or to otherwise vary theexpression.

It is the general object of myinvention to provide an improved andsimplified mechanism for thus increasing the air ten- SlOIl.

In the preferred form of my invention all of the air from the action orfrom a section thereof passes through a tension regulating pneumatic.The air normally passes therefrom to the exhaust through a connectionregulated and controlled by-a valve in said pneumatic, but an additionalnormallyclosed connectionis provided between the pneumatic and'theexhaust, so devised that it may be opened by a separate mechanismsheet-controlled from the accent-opening in the tracker'bar. When thisadditional connection is open,ithe air from the action still passesthrough the regulating pneumatic but is no longer controlled by theregulating valve. This provision of separate connections from'theregulating pneumatic to the exhaust, controlled by entirely differentdevices is an important feature of my invention.

Another object of my invention is to provide means for varying the airtension in a section of the action independently of the sheet-controlledmechanism. For this purpose, in my preferred construction, I provide ahand lever so connected that the corresponding tension regulator may bepositively expanded thereby to permit greater air tension than thatfOPWhlCll the regulator spring is adjusted- An additional feature ofthis part of my invention relates to the provision of means forrendering the sheet-controlled 'mechanism operative by continuedmovement of said hand lever. In this manner maximum air tensionthe'actioll is secured.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 28, 1920.

Application filed June 17, 1918. Serial No. 240.306.

Other features of my invention relate to arrangements and combinationsof parts herelnafter described and more particularly pointed out in theappended claims.

A preferred form of my invention is shown diagrammatically in thedrawings, in which Figure 1 is an elevation of my expression mechanismand the parts associated therewith;

Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of a. portion of my expression mechanismon an enlarged scale, and

Fig. 3 is a side view of the hand levers.

Referring to the drawings I have indicated a tracker-bar 10 over which anote sheet 11 is drawn by driving mechanism not shown. Pipes 12 and 13lead from the treble and bass actions respectively to tension regulatingpneumatics 14 and 15. The pneumatic 14 is shown in section in Fig.2, andis connected through a vertical passage 16, a horizontal passage 17, anda second vertical passage 18 to a valve box 19, and a pipe 20 leading tothe exhaust or source of air tension, not shown. It is to be understood.that the words vertical and horizontal refer to the parts as shown inthe drawings and not to their actual arrangement in the instrument.

r A valve 21 is positioned at the upper end of the passage 18 and isconnected to a flexible diaphragm 22 covering a pocket 23 to which isconnected a tube 24. The tube 24 leads to an outlet in a'block 25(Fig. 1) normally closed by a flat spring 26. The usual re-roll lever 2is provided with fan extension 28 adapted to engage the spring 26 as thelever is moved in the direction of the arrow ain Fig. 1, therebydepressing the spring 26 and opening the tube 24 to the atmosphere.Atmospheric pressure is thus exerted on the upper side of the diaphragm22, depressing the valve 21 and closing the passage 18 by which theactions are connected'to the exhaust. When the lever 27 is returned toinitial position, the spring 26 again closes the outlet of the tube 24and the usual bleed opening 29' exhausts the pocket 23 and permits thevalve 21 to be raised by the tension of the exhaust.

An expression valve 30 (Fig. 2) is hinged to the fixed leaf of theexpression pneumatic 14 and is held in yielding engagement with a stop31 secured to the movable leaf of the pneumatic 14. As the air tensionin the pneumatic increases the movable leaf is drawn upward against thetension ofthe spring 32 (Fig. 1) and the i' 'alv'e30 is thus permittedto move nearer to the inlet of the passage 16, thus reducing the airtension in the pneumatic. The expression. pneumatic itself forms no partof my invention and the operation just described is the usual operationthereof. I provide, however a second vertical passage :33 leading fromthe pneumatic l4: and connecting to a cross passage 34;, shownin dottedlines in Fig. 2 and forming. a connection between the passages 33 and16." The passage 33 is provided with a port 35 normally covered by aswinging gate valve 36. The valve 36 is connected by a link 37 withthemovable leaf of pneu matic 38 connected by'a pipe 39 to a' valvechamber 40. g I 1 The valve chamber is normally connected to theatmosphere by an opening 41 and a second opening 42 between the valvechamher and the exhaust passage 17 is normally clo'sed by a double valve453; The valve :rod 44:0f the double valve a3-is provided at its lowerend with a head 45 en gaging a diaphragm 46. The diaphragm 46 covers apocket i7 having the usual bleed opening. '48 and connected by a .pipe50 to a' tracker ;opening 51. When the tracker opening 51 is uncovered;atmospheric pressure will be exerted through the pipeg50 against thelowerside' of the diaphragmdfi, thus raising the valve 43 and connectingthe-pneumatic 38 to the exhaust.

The pneumatic is thus deflated and acts.

through the link 37 to move the valve 36 to the left and open the port:35; The pipe 12 from the action is thus connected directly,

through the passage 33 and the cross pas sage 35 to the passage16leading'to the exhaust. The full tension of the instrument is thenexerted upon the action regardless of the positionofthe valve 30. Anopening 52 maybe provided in'the valve 30 if necessary to permitunrestricted passage :of air through the interior of the pneumaticztothe passage 33.

:It will thus appear that all of the air from the treble action passesthrough the regulating pneumatic 14 but that two sepa rate connections,are provided between the said pneumatieand the exhaust, the pas sage '167 being conti'olled by the regulating tohavea direct connection from theaction 7 to the exhaust so that the tension may be regulated by :varyingthe operation of the exhaust bellows. Accordingly I provide a cut-outbox 54 .(Fig. 1 through which the pipes 50 and 53 are conducted, and Iprovide outlets 55 and 56 in said box for .said pipes 50 and53respectively. hese outlets 55 and 56 are normally covered by an arm 57pivoted on the box 5% and positioned by a lever 58. Ifunaccented notesheets. are tobe used the arm 57 may be swung upward to the positionindicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1, thereby uncovering the openings 55and 56 and permitting the neumatics :38 to open the swinging gateval-ves'36, thus connecting the actions directly withthe-exhaust.

It is sometimes desirable to vary the action of the tension regu'latingvalve 3 0 and to thereby vary th expression of the'instr'umentindependently of the accent openings in the note sheet. Such conditionsarise for instance when it is desired to increase or de;

crease the prominence of the accompaniment; 'themelody'being controlledby' the accent openings ofthe sheet.

For this purpose I provide hand levers 60 and 6l (Fig.3), the lever 60being mounted upon a shaft 62 extending beneath the key-board and to therear end ofwhich an arm 63 is secured. The lever61- is mount ed upon asleeve 64: surrounding the, shaft 62 and an arm 65 is similarly securedto the rear end of the sleeve 64. A branch p'ipe66 leads from th'etube50 'to anaoutlet in a block 67 normally covered by .aspring 6.8-,the end of the spring being in the path of: movement of the end of thearm The arm-63 isalso connected bya link-69 tothe movableleaf of-theexpression 'pneumaticlk When the lever 60 is moved in the direc tionofthe arrow 5 (Fig; :1.) the arm -63 is swung downwardly and actsthrough "the link 69 to depress the :movable leaf of the pneumatic 14,thereby moving the valve-3O exhaust; The operationof the 'hand lever 61and arm 65J-is precisely similar-with the exception that an intermediatelevel" 170 is 7 provided to reverse the motion;

By this manual means it is therefore VIPOS;

sible to secure any air-tension up to and including the 'full exhausti'tension'of the V instrument," .regardless of. the itension for whichthe spring :32. is adjusted and also regardless :of the operation .ofthe accent openings in'the musicrsheet.

The mechanism controlled by the handle 60 and 61 may also be used as anexpression device with unaccented note sheets if desired, and in thisevent the openings '55 and 56 gill be closed as when accented sheets areuse It will thus appear that I have provided simple and reliablemechanism for automatically controlling the expression of the instrumentand accenting any desired notes, and that I have also provided manuallyoperated mechanism for varying the expression of the instrumentindependently of the pneumatic mechanism.

While I have shown the mechanism as designed for use with a dividedaction it will be understood that the entire action may be controlled bya single set of mechanism if desired.

Having thus described my invention it will be evident that changes andmodifications can be made therein by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of my invention as expressed in theclaims. Therefore I do not wish to be otherwise limited to detailsherein disclosed, but what I claim is 1. In an expression mechanism forautomatic musical instruments, a player action, an exhaust connection, atracker-bar having an expression opening therein, pneumatic means'toincrease the air tension in the action, controlled from said trackeropening, an expression regulating pneumatic through which the air isexhausted, and manual means to positively expand said pneumatic toincrease the air tension on the action.

2. In an expression mechanism for automatic musical instruments, aplayer action, an exhaust connection, a tracker-bar having an expressionopening therein, pneumatic means to increase the air tension in theaction, a tube connecting said means to said tracker opening, said tubehaving a normally closed branch outlet, an expression regulatingpneumatic, and means to manually expand said regulating pneumatic toincrease the air tension in the action, said means being also effectiveto open said branch outlet on further movement thereof, to therebyrender said pneumatic means also operative.

3. In an expression mechanism for automatic musical instruments, atracker bar, a player action, pneumatic means to increase the airtension in the action, a tube connecting said means to a tracker openingfor sheet control of said means, said tube having an outlet intermediateits ends, and a manually operable device which may be set to remain ineither of two operative positions, said device in one of its positionsclosing said outlet to render the sheet control operative and in itsother position opening said outlet to render the sheet controlinoperative.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto aifixed my signature.

HERBERT J. LA JOIE.

